Chapter 105: would you call me by the name Renessa?
The Spirit World where Renessa lived was, to humans, a place that looked like some mystical realm brimming with mystery. The sky there was never truly dark nor truly bright, but existed somewhere in between, as if time in this world refused to pick a side. The buildings they used were built with unique materials, their surfaces glowing softly as though coated in dew that never dried, though for Eiros, he could say the architectural style—blending red walls with dark green roofs, as Renessa had described it—looked a lot like traditional Chinese housing.
Besides that, the place was also full of wind. Its breeze was gentle but constant, brushing against the edges of the rooftops, making the small bells hanging there chime softly. Smoke was always drifting, swallowing the world in white mist, floating low between the buildings like a river suspended in midair, though for the spirit race, that was never a disturbance at all. If anything, that mist seemed to be part of their world’s very breath.
It was in the middle of that calming atmosphere that their conversation began.
"So, you’re a princess from among the great spirits?"
Renessa nodded with a smile. Hearing that, Eiros couldn’t help but let his mind wander wildly.
’Great Spirits—in history books, they’re described as spirits standing at the very peak of power.’
Sure, he’d never once assumed Renessa came from some modest background. The problem was, after everything that had happened lately, he’d started suspecting that every main character in this webtoon carried some kind of origin story impossible to predict.
Even Alen, who looked completely ordinary with his simple farming background.
"You don’t look surprised."
"...I’ve heard plenty of things far more shocking than that."
Renessa giggled, amused. They were currently in a genuinely cozy space—a rest area with plenty of sofas and cushions. The room was full of color, packed with sofas, pillows, and stuffed animals in every shade imaginable, scattered messily, yet somehow warm, as though every corner still held traces of laughter that had once filled it. Above them, the ceiling was glass, letting them look directly up at the still-dark sky, dotted with unfamiliar stars flickering slowly, as if breathing.
Instead of lamps, the place used dimly glowing candles, their scent faint, like cinnamon mixed with night dew. Moonlight served as the only real light source, with magical objects providing a bit of extra illumination around the room, their two silhouettes reflecting softly against the glossy floor.
For a moment, only the sound of wind and the quiet creak of the chairs they sat on filled the silence, before Renessa finally spoke again, this time in a far more serious tone.
"Darling, you’re already familiar with the existence of Black Genesis and ’them,’ right?"
"Is this connected to ’them’?"
"Yeah," Renessa nodded, hugging a pale blue teddy bear, squeezing it, as though that squeeze were the only way to hold back something far heavier than words:
"Black Genesis and ’them’ use the Corruption Seed, which carries ’their’ DNA, and graft it into the bodies of living creatures. And, once that seed sprouts... you know what happens."
Eiros’s hand clenched slightly as he thought about the seed inside his own body. But he stayed quiet, showing no reaction at all, just listening to Renessa, letting the girl continue her story at her own pace.
"That’s exactly what they did to the spirit world. Because of our ability to sense negative things like that, we were able to notice their movements early on. But in the end, no matter what we did, winning was impossible."
"Why...?" Eiros’s face tightened—he genuinely needed to understand just how massive the thing they were actually up against really was.
Enough to defeat even the Spirit Race, who could sense ’their’ presence almost instantly.
"That’s because it turned out they had something even more dangerous. The corruption seed hosts were just bait, while the real threat stayed hidden."
Renessa looked hesitant, as though she wanted to name something specific, but decided to hold herself back and wrap it up differently instead. Her eyes drifted briefly toward the glass ceiling, as if searching for an answer among those unfamiliar stars, before she finally looked back at Eiros.
"The experiment subjects who survived and kept living with ’their’ DNA—that’s the real threat. Because they’re no less than the real ’them.’"
Renessa’s expression turned into a pout as she continued, her fingers tightening around the teddy bear in her lap:
"After that... yeah, you know, the spirit world was destroyed, and I was the only one who survived. To keep living, to hold my shattered mind together, I used the name of my brother, who sacrificed himself for me."
"What?"
"Erness was my brother’s name. My real name is Renessa Hiora."
Eiros didn’t show much of an expression, but deep down, in the depths of his heart, he could clearly feel a genuine pang of sympathy for the girl in front of him. The breeze slipping through the window seemed to slow, as though the world around them held its breath at that confession.
It must’ve been hard for her, must’ve been genuinely terrifying for Renessa, thinking about every tomorrow that would pass without the people closest to her.
That helped Eiros finally understand a few things. If Renessa really did often fall into that kind of severe depression, it was easy enough to say that every bit of madness she sometimes showed could well be a result of her mind being eaten away from within.
Someone once said:
’You forgive someone more, the more you understand their situation.’
That statement was true. Even though Eiros never held any particular grudge, he could feel that statement genuinely held weight.
That if he’d never known Renessa’s actual situation, and had only ever seen her madness, he’d surely have kept viewing Renessa as nothing more than a psychopathic ghost, someone to steer clear of.
As if unwilling to let the mood linger too long in sorrow, Renessa got up, tossing the teddy bear in her arms onto the sofa across from her, the motion light, as though trying to shake off the shadows she’d just spoken of herself. She looked at Eiros and their surroundings, her eyes bright again, back to their usual sparkle.
"I think that’s enough! Come on! Let’s go walk around some more. Time’s almost up, hehe."
Had Renessa really moved on from it? Or was she just hiding it again?
Behind that sweet smile, Eiros wondered, but he just gave a small smile and kept that question to himself. The two of them then stepped out of the room, leaving the still-dimly-lit candles behind, as though that small light stood faithfully guarding the secret they’d just shared.
"By the way," Renessa, standing a few steps ahead, paused for a moment and looked at Eiros, her silhouette lit by moonlight breaking through the thin mist.
"When it’s just the two of us, would you call me by the name Renessa?"
"Sure... Renessa."
Eiros nodded, finding nothing wrong with that at all. Besides, if this could help ease the girl’s mind, or help with whatever kept churning endlessly in her thoughts, Eiros was willing to do it.
He didn’t wait around or put things off—right then, the moment Eiros learned the fact that the spirit world, one of the worlds home to an incredibly powerful species, had simply been destroyed, it made him reconsider his own plans. As they walked through the misty corridors, his thoughts kept turning over, rearranging every possibility laid out before him.
Because, if Renessa had come here since her world had been destroyed and she’d had no choice but to survive, then...
’What about Valkas?’
A dragon, the dragon race—just that alone was enough to be seen as an embodiment of pure power. If Valkas had come here for the exact same reason, then ’their’ influence couldn’t be underestimated at all.
That one year he’d been hoping to reach Luminous in might need to be sped up. With a few unexpected additions he’d gotten along the way, that might actually be doable.
Beyond that, what else could he do?
’I probably need to start finding my own resources.’
He needed to set his sights on more.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere, far from the warmth of the white mist and candlelight of the spirit world, the atmosphere felt far colder and stiffer. A girl with a red bob haircut stepped into a room containing statues of past heroes, her footsteps echoing faintly against the cold, silent floor. There were three of them, their stone faces staring blankly ahead, as if standing as silent witnesses to whatever was about to unfold, though the girl’s own gaze wasn’t fixed on the statues at all.
Her expression looked uneasy, though she hid her gloomy face by lowering her head slightly. Her hands were clenched into fists, her nails digging into her palms, and not long after, she spotted a woman with dark green hair, wearing glasses and a lab coat, standing at the far end of the room, her gaze unreadable.
The woman leaned against the wall of the room, looking at the red-haired girl and smiling—a smile that, for some reason, felt colder than the room itself.
"Alright, alright, let’s hear it—what excuse do you have, after everything you’ve done all this time."
The girl flinched, closing her eyes. Her entire body trembled with fear.
***